Diary of a Theologian

F is for Friend

This is the sixth in a series on the Divine Alphabet.

Friend is the most appropriate of all the names for God. It is not the first name we have for God, nor is it God’s proper name. But of all names that bubble up, as it were, from the sea of human existence, friend is the most fitting.
    God’s proper name is YHWH, which is rarely if ever to be pronounced. It is the Name Moses learned from God’s speaking to him out of the burning bush. It means something like “God is existence itself” or “God just is and always will be” or “God is entirely self-defined and nothing else can make him what he is.” In short, a rather mysterious name!
    God also has a second proper name, and it is to be pronounced freely: JESUS. This Name also is powerful in itself, summoning every knee to bend to the ground in obeisance, from the knees of the super-wealthy to the knees of those in government to the knees of simple folk, knees in heaven, knees on the earth, knees under the earth. Jesus’ Name is the proper Name of God, and to it belongs all the authority and power that belongs to the utterly mysterious YHWH.
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    But Jesus did not cling to his divine prerogatives. Rather, he humiliated himself to be the tiniest human being in Mary’s womb. He was born, he was a child, he was an adult. He was humiliated most of all by the insulting device of crucifixion. He did all this, why?
    The answer: in order to establish friendship.
    The key is given in Saint John’s gospel, chapter 15. Jesus declares that the greatest love a person can show is to lay down his life for his friends. He also calls his disciples, at that very time, friends. On the night before he dies, Jesus interprets his death as the securing of friendship.
    It is human friendship with one another—an expansive friendship, which is shown by John when, in chapter 20, Jesus calls Mary Magdalene by her name. The good shepherd (John ch. 10) calls his sheep by name, and they know him and follow him. Mary knows him, in the garden, when he calls her name. She too is his friend, the first of an ever-expanding fellowship.
    It is at the same time human friendship with God that Jesus establishes. This must be true simply by the logic of theology: Jesus is God, and so friendship with Jesus just is friendship with God.
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    There are three kinds of language to speak of our relationship with God, human words that we properly stretch to apply to our relationship with God. One is spousal, such as in the hymn “The Church’s One Foundation” where it says Jesus came from heaven to make her (the church, us) his bride. Behind this is the Song of Songs.
    The second kind of language is familial. We properly speak of being the child, son, daughter, sister, or brother of God. We are children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ. We are in God’s family.
    The third language is the language of friendship. It is the deepest language of the Scriptures, I believe, although it is certainly the least thought about. That God is and longs to be our friend seems to me the ultimate mystery of reality. The hymn-writer has it just right when he ends by addressing God as “our maker, defender, redeemer, and friend.”
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    Wednesday, March 11, I am pinch-hitting for Bishop Sumner for the Lenten series at Resurrection Episcopal Church in Plano. The series is on turning the creed into prayer. It meets at the home of the vicar; you could drop me a line if you’re interested in attending ( ) at 6:30 p.m.

    June 8-10 in Baltimore. This year’s Pro Ecclesia conference will be on the Sermon on the Mount. I am responsible for this, and hope that, if you are able to come, you will! We have excellent speakers lined up who will explore this fundamental text in terms ranging from the biblical and theological to such things as the sermon in the arts and its economic feasibility. More information is here, and you can register now at the Early Bird rate here.

E is for Excessive

This is the fifth in a series on the Divine Alphabet.

    God is excessive.
    There was a film long ago called “O God” in which George Burns played the title role. I remember one line from it. God is asked if he ever made any mistakes. There was one, he says. “The avocado—the pit’s too big.”
    We laugh. But my, isn’t the truth about creation that it is just too much? that it is superfluous? that there is more of everything than there needs to be? Dandelion seeds blowing in a slight breeze, a single oak tree making thousands of acorns over decades of its life, on and on and on: creation teems with excess, with fecundity, fertility. Even the universe as a whole, it now appears, is expanding! What a strange indeed impossible notion that is, that “all that is” continues to “take over” or “encroach” on “nothingness” that is beyond it. It doesn’t make any sense for the universe (which includes all the space that exists) to have more space. And yet it does just that.
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    In a class recently, we were trying to understand the traditional claim that knowing God is the creator doesn’t tell us anything about God in himself. Creation doesn’t yield any information about God’s nature or character. But (we wondered), doesn’t it tell us that God creates? It does tell us, yes, that God can accomplish things. But God would still be God even if there were no creation. There is nothing in God that makes it necessary for him to create anything.
    There is nothing necessary in God. That’s why we can call God excessive.
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    Literally, to be excessive is to “exceed,” which is to go (that’s the “ceed” part) beyond or out (that’s the “ex”). God goes beyond anything necessary or required or in any other way fixed or determined. God keeps going beyond himself. The avocado pit, although it may look like a mistake, is actually a great picture of how God is always doing more.
    And yet, to be fair, any time you do something loving or creative you are being excessive yourself—and that’s above all the best picture of God.
    Friends, let us be excessive!
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    Readers write. I received a number of suggested “E” adjectives for God—with one friend sending me a list of 20 or 30. Without calling that list excessive (!), I will say it was exceedingly evocative! Among the other suggestions were “elegant,” which is good to remember, and “enervating,” which shows commendable honesty. With regard to “D” last week I forgot to report that we heard from the canine contingent. They support the claim that God is “dogmatic” (emphasis on the first syllable). I love this. Now to F.
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    Out & About. Wednesday, March 4, I’m to preach at St. John’s in Montgomery, Alabama, at the 12:05 service (on Job 2:7-13), and to speak at the 6:30 Lenten program. My evening talk will be on suffering and the question of God’s love. If you’re in Montgomery, it would be great to see you.
    Sunday, March 8, I get to return to St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Dallas to teach the “Unheard Words” adult class. Our topic will be Genesis 15, parts of which are avoided by the lectionary.
    The next “Good Books & Good Talk” seminar will be on Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town. If you read it, you’re welcome to the conversation: Sunday, March 15, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Incarnation in Dallas.
    June 8-10 in Baltimore. This year’s Pro Ecclesia conference will be on the Sermon on the Mount. I am responsible for this, and hope that, if you are able to come, you will! We have excellent speakers lined up who will explore this fundamental text in terms ranging from the biblical and theological to such things as the sermon in the arts and its economic feasibility. More information is here, and you can register now at the Early Bird rate: https://www.pro-ecclesia.org/